Janis Joplin was once voted the 'Ugliest Man on Campus'. Sharon Jones was told she was 'too old, too fat, too short, too black' to succeed in music. Two documentaries chart the lives of these extraordinary women.

Congo’s most famous musician Papa Wemba, performing at a concert in Kinshasa in 2004.
Reuters/ David LewisApril 27, 2016

Jimmy Ruffin’s confection of choice was the Eccles cake. The soul singer who definitively diagnosed the emotional condition of broken heartedness on one of Motown’s all-time classic singles was especially…

Wigan was home to a thriving soul scene in the 1970s.
mtarvainenSeptember 25, 2014

Some good news for soul music lovers from an unlikely source: a recent trademark decision by the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) sent a strong message that the iconography of the “northern soul…

Tributes have poured in for soul legend Bobby Womack, who died on Friday.
laurent Gillieron/EPAJune 30, 2014

By now you’ll be aware that the legendary soul singer Bobby Womack died on Friday, aged 70. As with the death of many cultural “greats”, social media and traditional media have been united in singing his…